User Reviews

"The Outcast" of the title is Jet Cosgrave (John Derek) who returns home after eight years to claim the ranch left him by his father but swindled away from him by his unscrupulous uncle Major Linton Cosgrave (Jim Davis) and his lawyer Andrew Devlin (Taylor Holmes).

Jet meets his uncle's fiancé Alice Austin (Catherine McLeod) and sets out to take her away from his uncle. Into the mix comes Judy Polsen (Joan Evans) the daughter of a rival rancher Chad Polsen (Frank Ferguson). Slim Pickens plays Judy's brother the hard ridin' Boone Polsen.

Jet has hired a group of gunman led by the murderous Dude Rankin (Bob Steele) who guns a helpless ranch cook in the back. On the other side is Cal Prince (James Millican) and his gang which includes the trigger happy "The Kid" (Ben Cooper) and Bert (Harry Carey Jr.). Double crosses abound until the final showdown between the two Cosgraves.

The film was directed by Republic veteran William Whitney best known for his work in serials and his realistic fight scenes. He even allowed Roy Rogers to display a blood trickle in "Trail of Robin Hood" (1950).

John Derek was more renowned for his off-screen life than for his acting. He was fortunate enough to have been married at one time or another to three of the most beautiful women of their day..Ursula Andress, Linda Evans and Bo Derek. To me he didn't make a very convincing hero though. I couldn't see him besting the 6' 4" Jim Davis in a fight.

Jim Davis was a familiar face in many Republic westerns of the period. He usually played a villain but did on occasion did play on the right side of the law. Slim Pickens was working in Republic's Rex Allen series at the time and also turned up in a couple of Republic's "A" features as well. Bob Steele had been a "B" series star in the 30s and had been reduced to supporting roles from the late 40s onward. He was at his best as a villain as in this film. James Millican was a veteran of several Randolph Scott westerns and Harry Carey Jr. was a familiar face in several John Ford Westerns. Ben Cooper was being groomed by Republic to be their next juvenile lead.

Great photography, action, color and story and except for Derek as the hero, a great cast.

Sorry I can't share the same enthusiasm for this film that prior reviewers have, but it seems to muddle from scene to scene in search of the righteous revenge angle that never quite materializes. The protagonist, Jet Cosgrave (John Derek), never evokes the kind of sympathy one would expect for his cause, because even though he was swindled out of ownership of his father's ranch, he only seems one track minded on doing away with his uncle The Major (Jim Davis). Along the way, he can't seem to keep his hands off the ladies, and I get the impression that if Mrs. Banner was a little younger, he might have tried to kiss her too.

I guess where I lost empathy for Jet was when he failed to deal with his hired gun Dude Rankin (Bob Steele) for the shooting of the camp cook at the line ranch. It was almost like, 'well that wasn't a cool thing to do, but a purpose was served so we'll let it slide'. Check the scene right after Jet admonishes Rankin, saying he's to do what he's paid for and not more; as Jet turns his horse to ride away, the horse hits Rankin in the head! I was surprised that wasn't a do over.

You know what perplexed me - the showdown that I expected to occur between Jet and the Major the first time was interrupted by the love triangle, and the Major didn't do anything but hang out waiting for something to happen. Not very believable when he was already worked up enough to face off against his nephew. Then when it was set up again, attorney Devlin interfered to prevent a more satisfying resolution. In their own way, the only characters that seemed to maintain their integrity as bad boys were the gun for hire ranch bosses, Cal Prince (James Millican) and Dude Rankin. Oh yeah, and kudos to Curly too for remaining true to his principles and not selling out his boss; what else would you expect from an actor named Nacho Galindo?

At least there was that cool fist fight on horseback between Jet and The Dude, I've never seen that before. Just about everything else though was pretty much by the book for a 'B' oater. For a better John Derek effort in a Western, I would recommend checking out the 1957 picture, "Fury at Showdown". It's got better atmosphere as a black and white film, a great bar room brawl, and an effective early appearance by Nick Adams.

This is a B feature set up for John Derek, but the supporting cast often gets some attention. The departure here from Rebublics formula is that the women (there are 2 of them) get more script than in most westerns. This makes sense as Derek would go on to marry Uresla Andress, Linda Evans, and Bo Derek. Here he gets the attention of both the main women in the cast.

With Slim Pickens and Jim Davis on board, there's plenty of gun fighting and lots of the standard plot fare. We have a family feud and a missing will, crooked lawyer and a split in a family. Makes for an intense 90 minutes. The music in this one is good and credited to R. Dale Butts. Mr. Butts did music in a lot of films but his real life distinction is he was the guy who married and divorced Dale Evans before Roy Rogers, another major Republic studio star.

...are the strengths of this muddled movie. And the soundtrack is reasonably good, too. The gunfight between the cattle rustlers and Jet and two of the Polson boys provides some dandy footage of cowboys ridin' and shootin' - not to mention the nice stunt work during the horseback tussle between Jet and Dude. Otherwise you should avoid it.

The plot is a variation on the old Hatfields and McCoys feud. In this variant, however, one of the families is, itself, also split into two factions, and the pater familias of the other family buggy whips and banishes his daughter. Oddly, the Polsons even call themselves "hill people," reflecting a social milieu and jargon straight out of Appalachia and foreign to the Old West. The dialog is full of other, similar oddities and apparent anachronisms. Most of the characters are not well-defined or well-portrayed. Derek's character is especially unsympathetic, and his acting is pure wooden bravado without any nuance. When he tells Judy that he has just been making a play for Alice in order to embarrass his uncle, it comes as a totally incredible fabrication.

As one commentator already noted, the anticipated gunfight between Jet and The Major is at first delayed by some pseudo-romantic exposition and then finished with other anti- climactic interruptions from a hired gun and a raving lawyer.

Easily the best scene is apparently unscripted. The sight of Jet wheeling his horse into Dude, whacking him on the head with the horse's mouth is just about the only thing in this movie that seems genuine.

Generally good primary feature (90 min.) western from Republic, shot in Trucolor, in mostly Colorado settings, which match the scripted Colorado setting.......The story begins with the return of Jet Cosgrave(John Derek) to Colton, CO: a town said to be run by his uncle: Major Linton Cosgrave(Jim Davis), who also apparently inherited the large Circle C Ranch from Jet's father. This is a true wild west town, that lacks a sheriff, because the last 4 were either killed or soon resigned. Jet has reason to believe that the will giving the Major the Circle C is a forgery, but cannot prove that. He is prepared to use violent means to take ownership of the Circle C, if the will cannot be proven to be a forgery. .....No explanation is given for Jet's disappearance from home 8 years ago, when his father died, nor information on what he has been doing in the meantime, nor explanation for why he decided to return just now. He has contracted for 9 gunslingers, headed by Dude Rankin(Bob Steele) to help him wrest the ranch from the Major. If Jet had known the reputation of Dude, he wouldn't have entrusted him with the leadership of this group, for Dude would prove a turncoat when the Major offered him more compensation, in the form of all the Polsen cattle they could rustle, which had recently reoccupied the Newmark Valley, which the Major considered part of his territory. The Newmark Valley was owned by a Mr. Newmark, who had disappeared some years ago, rumored to have been killed by the Major. The Major had pushed the Polsen family out of the valley a while ago. Jet, with his little army aimed to support a Polsen retake of the valley, to irritate the Major. However, when Dude switched sides, the Polsen cattle disappeared one night. Yet, the relationship between Jet and the Polsens is still uncertain. Papa Polsen, a bible freak, whipped his daughter Judy and disowned her just because Jet had grabbed and kissed her. Later, papa would apologize. Curly(Nacho Gulindo) was the only one of Dude's bunch who didn't defect to the enemy. He and Jet would be attacked by Prince(James Millican): the Major's foreman, plus other men, but the pair would kill all except Prince, who escaped, and would survive until the finale shootout. The pair then were accosted by the Polsens, who thought they had rustled their cattle. Several of the Polsens then accompanied Jet to try to retrieve their cattle, which had been stolen by Dude and bunch. They managed to kill nearly all these gunslingers after engineering a stampede. Dude fled on his horse, but Jet caught up and they arm wrestled while riding their horses, until Jet transferred to Dude's horse and pushed him off, apparently breaking his neck upon landing.......I like that the expected finale showdown between Jet and the Major was more complex than that. There were 5 participants in the shootout, that occurred on Main Street. Besides Jet and the Major, there was Prince, Boone Polsen(Slim Pickens) and crooked lawyer, Andrew Devlin(Taylor Holmes). Boone's main objective was to protect Jet from being killed. The Major had had recent fallings out with Prince and Devlin. Prince was eager to shoot both Jet and the Major. The major had just pistol whipped Devlin, and the latter was itching for revenge, which partly took the form of shouting that Jet's father's will was a forgery. See the film(available free at YouTube) to find out the sequence of shootings and final result.......I also liked that, instead of the formulistic good girl vs. bad girl conflict, the women involved: Alice Austin((Catherine McCleod), and Judy Polsen(Joan Evans) became friends, although one(Alice) was promised to wed the Major, while Judy fancied that Jet might ask her to marry him. Jet flirted with both, although he claimed to Judy that his flirtation with Alice was just to irritate the Major. Toward the end, both women were fed up with the war. Alice returned to Virginia, and Judy swore off further romancing with Jet. However, Judy would quickly change her attitude after the results of the finale showdown. ... ...Joan Evans and Catherine McLeod were both minor Hollywood players. Bob Steele was in the midst of his entertainment career. Once playing cowboy heroes, by the mid-40s, this diminutive(5' 5") scrappy man was relegated to character parts. In contrast, Jim Davis(the Major) was tall and well built. He played in many B westerns, but would receive the most fame from his role in the "Dallas" TV series.